Habitat

Juvenile threshers are typically found along the continental shelf of warmer temperate waters as they prefer a lower temperature differential. Typically juveniles inhabit waters with depths no more than 20m (Cartamil et al. 2010).

(6. Figure 5 from Kneebone et al. 2020)

Acoustic telemetry research suggests that juveniles, specifically in the California Bight area, go through daily vertical migrations. They tend to stay in deeper water during the day and rise closer to the surface at night. This is thought to be a predation strategy (Cartamil et al. 2010). 

Adult threshers typically inhabit waters around 200m of depth, though they have been found in a variety of depths from 1-5427m, and inhabit temperate waters worldwide. During adulthood threshers go through a northward and southward migration as the seasons progress (Kneebone et al. 2020).

(7. Figure 4 from Kneebone et al. 2020)

In the Atlantic Ocean this migration is between Cuba to Newfoundland while in the Pacific Ocean this migration is between Mexico and British Columbia Canada. In each ocean the threshers spend the summer months in the north and the winter months in the south (Kneebone et al. 2020).

In the Pacific it is theorized that multiple different environmental factors go into this migration each year. While in the Atlantic it is thought that temperature is the main driving factor causing threshers to migrate each year as threshers prefer water with a surface temperature of 10-22°C. Despite this, adults have been found in waters with surface temperature anywhere from 4-31°C. Migratory routes and spatial distribution is unclear in the Atlantic as most of the data about threshers in the Atlantic comes from fishery dependent sources (Kneebone et al. 2020).

Behavior

No sex related habitat aggregation behavior has been recorded though that could be from lack of information as it is likely females stay in warmer waters longer in order to help with gestation. Threshers are not often seen aggregating together as they are typically a solitary species (Kneebone et al. 2020).

The main segregation behavior seen in threshers is the fact that juvenile threshers inhabit shallower, warmer waters compared to adult threshers which may migrate further northward and into deeper waters. This is thought to be so that juveniles may avoid predators but, it may also be due to the fact that the main prey juveniles go after also aggregate closer to shore (Cartamil et al. 2010). Unfortunately this means that juvenile sharks tend to be caught more frequently than adults so many individuals are not living to reach maturity (Kneebone et al. 2020).